By Brian Kevin
From our September 2024 issue
Got any big Maine Needham Day plans? Wait, you didn’t know the last Saturday in September is officially designated as Maine Needham Day? Oh, you say you’re a bit fuzzy on what exactly are the tiny, square, Maine-originated treats known as needhams?
It all started in Auburn in the late 19th century. Unless it didn’t. Some sources say Portland. And it’s hard to verify a date. But a confectionary called Seavey’s Sweets, that eventually had an Auburn presence, was very likely the first to bind a glob of shredded coconut and sugar with a bit of Maine-grown potato, then press that luscious mixture into squares and cover them with chocolate. Or possibly the potato came later? Unclear. What we do know is that someone, at some point, decided to christen the candy after a New England celebrity preacher named George C. Needham. For some reason.
“So the needham story is actually a lot of unsubstantiated folklore,” says Malaika Picard, who co-owns Saco’s Maine Needham Company with her husband, Gerard, and was the prime mover behind Maine Needham Day. Back in 2022, to commemorate what may, or may not, have been the 150th anniversary of the needham, Malaika pressed her state rep, Maggie O’Neil, to send a proclamation request to governor Janet Mills. The governor declined, but O’Neil brought a bill to the legislature last year that got the job done. Now, September festivities don’t have to end with the equinox. “It was kind of a nod to the timing of the Aroostook potato harvest,” Malaika says. “And of course, if you have a special day, you have to have a festival to celebrate that special day.”
So, on September 28, Wiscasset’s Maine Tasting Center hosts the second annual Maine Needham Festival, with candymakers from across the state offering demos and serving all manner of the decadent little tuber treats. Maine Needham Company alone makes blueberry, maple, espresso, and apple-pie varieties, among others. Blaze Brewing is pouring a needham-inspired milk stout, brewed with coconut and dark chocolate. There’ll be a homemade-needham taste-off, potato-sack races for kids, craft vendors, food trucks, a couple of singer-songwriters, and other tater-themed happenings. Admission is free, and by the time you leave, you’ll be able to explain needhams to all your from-away friends — since, tasty as they are, they never really caught on outside the state.
Malaika was a relative Maine newcomer the first time she heard of needhams: after dinner with Gerard’s family, her now-sister-in-law mentioned she’d be saving the leftover spuds to make dessert. “I thought that was curious,” Malaika recalls — but needhams turned out to be a favorite sweet. She and Gerard were in the cake-making business before they bought the Maine Needham Company five years ago. These days, they explain the treat to the uninitiated with a commercial-candy comparison: like a Mounds bar, but richer. “If the potato at first sets them on edge, that description tends to pique their curiosity,” she says. “And I just feel like everybody in the United States needs to know what a needham is.”
